The Midnight Gospel (2020) s01e05 Episode Script

1
[theme music playing]
[DJ on radio]
Good morning, simulation farmers.
This is the Pyromoth
coming in hot this morning
with a track by Brian Zapp
and the Beefettes.
-A little tune by the name of "Fire Baby."
-[Clancy snoring]
[rock music playing]
[sighs]
Turn that off!
[computer] As you desire, Master.
Oh, what a fucking crazy dream, Rose.
Rose?
Rose!
Oh, no, somebody puked on you.
Fuck. Someone puked on you.
I can fix this.
Ugh, Charlotte, come on.
Char-- Ugh, Charlotte!
[groans]
Oh, my head.
[computer] Good morning, Master.
How are you feeling?
-Coffee.
-I will make coffee for you, sweetie.
[groans]
[sighs]
Ooh.
[beeping, whirring]
[beeping]
All right.
[whirring]
Let's see here. No.
[beeps]
The doctors told me shepherd's paunch
was incurable
and I only had a few days to live.
Thank God for Nurse Prunk.
Music cured my shepherd's paunch,
my marriage, my thick dog,
my empty bank account,
even my withered garden.
And I'm gonna teach you
to use music to become immortal.
You're one click away
from my Music Soothes the Savage Beast
Musical Miracle course.
It's so obvious.
Music, of course.
Okay, plug that in there, put that
in that, accept that, connect that.
Here we go. And now.
Oh, Rose, I'm gonna heal you ♪
Gonna use my musical abili ♪
Abili Abili ♪
Fuck it. Computer, play music.
[indistinct pop music playing]
Nice.
That's a good song.
[indistinct voices singing]
[whirring]
-[door closes]
-[music fades]
[computer] Master, I crafted
this musical rainbow avatar for you.
Meet Pretty Pretty.
I like Pretty Pretty.
-Thank you, Computer.
-You're welcome, Master.
-Whoa, what's that place?
-Oops. [computer chuckles]
You weren't supposed to see that.
That's my Soul Prison
for Wayward Simulated Beings.
What the fuck does that mean?
It's a tower of malfunctioning sims
so enraged with existential dread
that they've ripped out their own tongues.
What? Yes. Send me in.
That sounds perfect.
I'm not going to get hurt? No?
You cannot die in a soul prison. You
You can only be reborn.
[muffled] Oh!
Sounds good, man. Send me in.
Merging with simulator in three
two
-[whirring]
-[overlapping male voices] one.
[harmonica playing]
402, 403
[continues playing harmonica]
[snickers]
[exploding, shattering]
[coughing]
[xylophone chimes]
Oh, hi.
Hi.
Play-- I play music. I don't really play.
I mean, my name's Clancy.
I'm a spacecaster.
And I wanted to know if maybe you'd like
to be interviewed for my spacecast?
[growling, barking]
Which goes into space.
[snarling, chomping]
[bird] He bit his own tongue off,
like, three years ago.
But you could interview me.
I'm his soul bird.
[Clancy] Uh
Okay.
[deep vocalizing]
Well, we say "soul bird,"
but to be more specific about it,
I'm like a psychopomp
-or a whip-poor-will.
-[Clancy] What?
[snarls]
Oh, boy.
[both growling, grunting]
Calm down, Bob. It's okay.
-[roars]
-[grunts]
-Come on, guys.
-[crunching]
[gasps] Oh!
-[shrieks]
-[Clancy] Hey, wait. Hey! Wake up.
[Clancy, echoing] What's going on?
[deep voice] This is the existential trap
of the soul prison.
[bird screeches]
[snarls]
[birds twittering]
Oh! [gasps]
Holy shit.
-That was nuts!
-That was the bardo loop.
You're all knotted up
in my boy's soul string here.
Huh.
I guess that means you'll be coming along
for the ride every time Bob dies.
[gasps]
Cool.
My name's Jason, by the way.
[clears throat]
My name is Clancy ♪
It's nice to meet you, Jason! ♪
Okay.
This moment would not be happening
if we were not both here discussing it
and everyone listening
out in the multiverses
was not here listening to this, right?
Without you, the viewer,
-and you, Clancy, the host
-Yeah.
and the millions of people
who could hear this,
this moment would not exist.
Therefore, it's not a function,
-like, I'm talking right now
-[grunting continues]
but this is not
a function of some essential, core Jason.
-Right.
-I'm playing a role right now.
[grunting]
-[gags]
-I can feel it.
[Clancy's voice distorting]
It feels weird.
[screaming]
[snarling]
-[exploding]
-[birds twittering]
[gasps]
-Wait, you were talking about
-A Hindu theory, Indra's Net.
-Right.
-So the concept
is that all the consciousnesses
in the world are connected.
[gasps]
Imagine, like, a giant net,
like, a glowing, blue net in infinity.
Like a quilt?
No. More like a net.
The Hindu view on this
is that it's the nodes
that are important, right?
And the points on the net,
the connections between the lines,
those are consciousnesses.
-Those are Atmans.
-Yes.
The Atman is conscious.
It is consciousness.
-And each individual consciousness is God.
-Yes.
And, in its own way, is the totality.
It's the soul of a butterfly.
The soul of a I don't know,
like a single-celled organism.
A bacteria to the soul
of, like, the Dalai Lama,
to the soul of some as-of-yet uncontacted,
hyper-intelligent
-All the The gods themselves.
-Yes.
It's like every soul
is like photons coming out of the sun.
Right. So the Buddha looks at Indra's Net
and it's basically the same topography,
but he says, "It's not the nodes.
It's the connections."
-Ha! Cool.
-Right.
So, this is the diagnostics
of the Buddha, right?
It's like we think we exist
and therefore we suffer.
[groans] Oh!
[coos]
[quietly grunts]
[splashing]
[bird screeching]
[barking]
[Clancy]
Sorry, we exist, therefore we suffer?
[Jason] We think that there's something
essentially true about reality.
You only have the illusion
that you're a separate self,
because it's a point
at which a network converges.
The important distinction here also
is this is not nihilism.
It's not, "Nothing is real."
It's that everything
is empty of inherent quality,
meaning non-essentialism.
There's no essential, one true "Clancy."
-There's no essential, one true "Jason."
-[Clancy] Right.
[Jason] There's no essence of anything.
The Tibetan Buddhists
call this the clear light,
understanding the essential
non-existence of everything.
Now, to ground this in my life,
you know, the way
that I've experienced this is on DMT.
-So, December 21st, 2012
-[grunting]
I did a tremendous amount of DMT
um, while engaged in sexual antics
with multiple people.
[Clancy] Wow.
-You know?
-Who humps on DMT? I've never tried that.
-I didn't know that was a thing.
-It's tricky. It's actually Well 
Well, you don't have consciousness
of your body anymore,
so basically the sex part stops
during the DMT experience.
Okay. But, in between, you're having sex?
Yes.
[chuckles]
In the DMT space,
I had the experience of perceiving
the fundamental emptiness of everything
and I described it recently as,
"Nothingness, but shining."
Wow. You're a cool bird.
What I realized in the DMT trip is that
The French call the orgasm
"the little death."
Death is actually the big orgasm, right?
-The relinquishing of the self.
-[grunts]
And the self obviously doesn't exist,
but the self is also a burden
and is a source of suffering.
Well, you know,
I guess everything's kind of a burden
to you, you know?
A bird-en.
A "bird"-en.
'Cause you're a bird.
Oh, man,
can you please not do bird jokes?
-I was in the middle of a thought.
-[chuckles]
[Jason] The relinquishing of the idea
that you have an individual self
-is the ultimate orgasm.
-[laughs]
It's the perception of emptiness and
the fundamental clear light of existence.
Now, let's take this out of my wacky life
and back to 2,500 years ago.
Right? Hinduism and Buddhism are
Buddhism is a Hindu heresy.
And the Nepalese merge them both
to create this,
like, psychedelic Megazord--
A what?
Like a Like a
What's that called in Power Rangers?
Oh, okay, cool.
Damn it. God. I'm glad it's Power Rangers,
but I was praying
that you had just added to my lexicon
[laughs]
of some fucking new spiritual term
called Megazord.
Power Rangers, yeah. It's not Sanskrit.
So 2,500 years ago
[growling]
people start practicing
Buddhist techniques
and people start waking up out of
the dream of their individual suffering
all over northeastern India.
Buddhist meditation
is you're not trying to get anywhere.
You're just sitting with yourself.
-You're just sitting with the feeling.
-[gunshots]
The feeling that you try to get away from
all damn day long.
Hoo! Tingle. It tingles.
[playing rhythmic music]
[cooing]
[growling]
[twittering]
[sighs]
[barking]
What were we talking about?
I get foggy in there.
Yeah. I'm trying not to be like,
"How did I get this job?"
This is like I'm cursed
to constantly do this.
-[gasping, grunting]
-[xylophone playing]
Give those to me.
[playing rhythmic music]
[chuckles]
So Buddhist meditation
is sitting with "the feeling"
until you notice that "the feeling"
is changing of its own accord
and the fundamental nature of everything
is change
and is impermanent
and is emptiness.
And the whole dream of your life
that you thought was real was just a dream
until you wake up and say, "Oh, yeah,
it was just a dream.
And now I'm awake."
-That's the first turning of the Dharma.
-Wow.
[all laughing]
That's great, man.
[gate closes]
It kind of makes me think of
It's like this, like, very, very long
virtual reality experience
that had been going on so long, people
forgot they were doing virtual reality.
And then, all of a sudden,
a huge swathe of the player characters
began to realize like,
"Wait a minute. Wait a minute!
I'm not sure that actually
Wait, hold on.
Wait, I'm not actually Kratos,
the God of War.
[roaring]
It's like we're these amnesiac,
spiritual amphibians
that, like, you know, pop in here.
And, when we pop in,
we assume an identity.
This appendage
that is protruding into matter,
in the way that a snorkel
sticks into the air
so that you can exist for a little bit
of time under the sea, you know?
And
similarly, we've protruded into this realm
and we, like, have this experience,
but we start thinking
we're the fucking snorkel, right?
That's, in fact, part of the experience.
You think you're the snorkel.
If you took, like, a big chunk of sausage
and baked it
and then, like, drilled a hole through it
and formed a snorkel,
you theoretically could swim around
sucking air through salty meat.
[Jason laughing]
[screeching, grunting]
[Jason] Clancy
-[harmonic playing]
-[Jason laughing]
[all grunting]
[Jason continues laughing]
[distant voice wailing]
[chirping]
So whatever this experience is,
we think it's real
and we think
that we are somehow inherently real
and it's a case of mistaken identity.
This is the Buddhist perspective at least.
So, from this perspective,
let's consider spiritual practice.
Any spiritual practice that's, like,
trying to get to something
"I'm going to become more spiritual.
I am going to become more loving."
-[blows landing]
-[Jason] "And I'm gonna make some change."
"I'm getting points somehow.
I'm changing."
-[Clancy] Yeah.
-The Buddhist perspective is,
"Dude, you're grinding
in World Of Warcraft."
[laughing] That's so fucked up.
[Jason] Why?
[Clancy] That's such a great analogy.
Step the fuck away from the computer.
Wake up.
[distant gunshot]
-[Jason] It's just a game.
-[Clancy laughing]
You're fucking grinding
in World Of Warcraft.
You're trying
all these spiritual practices
or you're trying to add experience points
to a character that doesn't fucking exist!
You forgot that you're playing a game.
-You're dehydrated. Drink some water.
-[laughing hysterically]
You've been playing this fricking game
for, like, 20 hours straight
to the point
that you forgot it was a game.
[Clancy continues laughing]
[roaring]
[grunting]
[Clancy] We want to continue
pushing into the simulation.
It's like we want to repeat
what's already happened.
It's not enough that we're in our bodies
and we've identified
with this player character.
Whereas Buddhism is pulling out.
It's like we've got
virtual reality goggles on
and we're in a game
and now we want to put on
another set of virtual reality goggles.
And then, not only do we want to put that
on, but we want to add to that another
augmented reality, then another.
So this is, like, this kind of infinite
[splats]
Is "ingress" the right-- An infinite
pushing into matter and time.
An infinite And in that
kind of pushing into matter and time
we're desperately trying to avoid
taking off the virtual reality goggles.
[Jason]
Why are we desperately trying to avoid it?
Because we don't want
to feel that feeling.
What feeling?
"The feeling."
I am as I am, right?
The feeling of everything that you do,
the addiction, the addiction to Maya,
is to not feel your inherent suffering.
-Yeah.
-Right? Because it sucks to have a body.
-[harmonica playing]
-It hurts.
[shrieking]
-[Clancy] Whoa!
-[roaring]
Fuck.
This guy's gotta keep dying like this?
Yeah. Until he figures it out.
[Jason's voice echoing]
Because it sucks to have a body.
-It hurts.
-[barking]
[yelping]
[crying]
[suckling]
[slapping]
[cheeping]
[crying]
The fact that everything is impermanent
is a cause of suffering.
-Yeah.
-Right?
Old age, sickness and disease. And death.
-Yeah.
-Um
Bob, are you doing okay, man?
[sobbing]
[snarling]
We believe in a universe
in which time exists
and therefore everything will disintegrate
and be gone
and the suffering of that is unbearable.
Yeah. When my teacher started teaching me,
the first thing he said is,
"I want you to know this."
And Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche,
my teacher, said to me
And he meant this.
[laughing] And I remember
he looked me right in the eye.
He meant this.
"This is hopeless.
-This is hopeless."
-[Jason] Yes.
The moment
you accept things as they are
you don't need to hope anymore.
Because you realize that where you are
is kind of okay.
[snarling]
[Bob coos]
[Clancy] See, I'm at the part
of my life now where that's a relief.
[grunts]
[Clancy] I've gotten past the part where,
like, I'm in a Disney movie where
hope is like a chipmunk
singing about, like,
-Hope will bring you life ♪
-[Jason laughs]
[Clancy]
No. Hope tortures your fucking ass.
[Jason] Yeah.
-He's never gonna get this.
-[Clancy] He needs
He needs music!
[Jason] Uh, let's see. So
[Clancy] Play the spoons.
Bob, hang in there!
We're gonna play music for you, Bob!
Music!
[Clancy grunts]
Fuck. Shit.
-Wait, I think--
-[Clancy] Bob!
Yeah. That's it!
Play the spoons!
[Bob grunting]
-[Jason] Uh
-[Clancy] Bust out those spoons!
-[Jason] Okay.
-[grunting]
[rhythmic music playing]
Yeah, baby!
You're the king of spoons!
[rhythmic music continues]
[Clancy] Climb, Bob! Go! Yeah! That's it!
Forget about it. Listen to the spoons!
-[Bob grunting]
-[crying]
[Jason] I don't even know when the last
time I expressed that much enthusiasm
in the real world was.
Possibly not in, like, 30 years, so
Yeah, it's okay! You can do it too.
-Pshh! Give up on hope!
-[snarling]
-[Clancy] Shit.
-[Bob gasps]
[roaring]
[yelping]
[Clancy] Now, hopelessness
sounds really rotten when you--
If you haven't really explored just how
much you've been using hope
as a flaw.
[screaming]
"Ooh, I hope tomorrow" Smack!
[crying]
"Oh, I hope she comes back." Slap!
"I hope I can forget" Smack!
Just beating yourself up with hope.
[whispers] Not one fucking second
you let yourself be hopeless.
Let go of hope.
-Let go.
-[Clancy sighs]
[cracks]
-[buzzer sounds]
-[Clancy coughing]
[winding]
[winding]
[winding]
[winding]
[winding]
[harmonica playing]
[whirring]
Huh?
[gasps]
[muttering]
[female voice] I can finally sing.
[emotional ballad playing]
Drinking blood
From the stump of a prison guard ♪
That I just chopped up ♪
That used to be freedom to me ♪
Watching my cellmate cry ♪
As I sprayed hot piss
In his gouged-out eyes ♪
That used to be freedom to me ♪
But now it's plain to see ♪
The prison was inside of me ♪
And I was really pissing ♪
In my own gouged-out eyes ♪
And freedom is what happens
When you finally take off ♪
Your prisoner disguise ♪
[whirring]
[chirps]
[chirping]
-Holy shit.
-[heart beating]
[whirring]
[blowing without sound]
[quiet buzzing]
[zapping]
[upbeat music playing faintly]
[computer] Good morning, Master.
Master?
Love that song.
Still a good song.
[computer stutters] Master
Let's see how my rose is doing.
[indistinct pop music playing]
-[screams]
-[rats chattering]
[gasps] Get out of here! Ooh!
[grunting]
It's a kind of cult.
[upbeat music playing]
[indistinct voices singing]